


rose scented

by s_craggy



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_craggy/pseuds/s_craggy
Summary: Yugi is laying in Ryou's bed again, and Ryou is laying by his side, and they're both awake, neither sleeping, both talking softly back and forth, under a shared blanket,Ryou'sblanket, and that's when the urge overtakes him.





	rose scented

**Author's Note:**

> ya boi back at it again with the gay shit
> 
> anyways this is uh vague setting just cute dumb gay shit bc its 3am and i literally cannot help myself

It doesn't really matter that the leaves that fall from the trees were once living. 

Maybe, it's a good thing. Ryou isn't sure. It feels like a good thing. It seems like a good thing. But there's something in the back of his mind that makes him think otherwise. Maybe it's not a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing. He can't tell. Regardless, it's a thing, and he has to deal with it. 

Yugi is sleeping on his bed. 

Deep sleep – face slack and breathing steady and limbs all still, the kind where dreams play across the insides of your eyelids and people can get out of bed without disturbing you. 

Ryou doesn't get out of bed. 

There's something – special to this morning. Something that's not quite the same. A feeling – in his chest, maybe? His heart? But all emotions come from the mind. What is this one, he wonders? Is this feeling a good one? He supposes it doesn't matter. 

Yugi stayed the night. It wasn't planned. One movie turned into two, then three, and by the time Ryou had even realized what time it was Yugi was already fast asleep on his comforter, and Ryou wasn't far behind him. 

So they slept. And now, with the morning light filtering in between his blinds, golden and sweet across the sheets, and the birds singing outside like an orchestra primed and prepping for their performance, Ryou wakes up, and watches Yugi sleep. 

(He's still a little drowsy, eyes heavier than they should be, limbs soft and pliant, willing to stay right where they are, and his mind is pleasantly slow, syrupy thoughts that sway like the tide over him, each wave a new passing idea, and that's his excuse for watching Yugi.)

(Inside, he knows the truth.)

Yugi breathes evenly as he sleeps. Steady. A constant slow rise and fall, the shift of his shoulders and back, the movement of the blankets over him. It's a peaceful sight, watching him. The flutter of his eyelashes with his dream. The twitch of an arm. Calming. 

Ryou must fall back asleep, because the next thing he knows Yugi is above him, hair falling in a golden halo around his face, smile wide and bright and not a sign of the sleeping boy he had once been. 

"Good morning!" Yugi says, and his smile is a flower blooming in spring, dew covered and bright, resting atop a lush, green bush. The wind rises, ruffling the petals; Yugi leans back, smile still in place, and holds out a hand to help Ryou sit up. 

"You sure slept a long time!" Yugi comments. "I was positive you'd be awake before me." 

Ryou blinks. "I did wake up, but I... must have fallen back asleep." 

"If your body needed it, it's good that it got it." Yugi nods, like he spoke a great wisdom, and Ryou nods back. He rubs at his eyes absentmindedly. 

The calm peace of the morning is gone; it's replaced by Yugi's soft energy, a low hum that permeates the very air around him, giving a vibrancy to everything he's near. Ryou can feel it in himself, that electric sort of feeling, when Yugi stretches, and his arm just barely grazes Ryou's shoulder. 

(Ryou knows the truth.)

 

 

Emotions are a swift tide, and Ryou but a leaf stuck at its mercy.

 

 

(It takes him a while to admit it.)

Ryou is once again on his bed. He's there frequently – quite a few hours every night, in fact, and some more during the day. And recently, he hasn't been the only one on it. 

Yugi is playing a video game next to him. 

Yugi's DS is red. It contrasts greatly to the black he wears, standing out profusely; from the back of it hangs a charm featuring a character Ryou can't name. The charm swings as Yugi plays, furiously clicking buttons and tapping the screen. He throws it down at one point, huffing in frustration, before taking it back into his hands. 

Ryou watches him. 

He's supposed to be watching the game – or reading, or whatever he said he was going to do while Yugi played. He's supposed to be occupied, and not staring at his best friend – best friend? Could Ryou call them that? Best friends?

(He doesn't think best friends feel like this, but he doesn't have another name for the feeling that swoops through his gut.)

Yugi's eyeliner is smooth and sharp, drawn with a steady, practiced hand. It makes the purple of his eyes pop, shine, the color an amethyst glittering in the sun. Makes his hair – recently bleached, all that light, fuzzy texture that Ryou can't say he enjoys – that much brighter, like the sun itself had climbed inside his window and sat atop Yugi's head. He's got such pale skin – it's so hard to get tan in this colder region of Japan, even if Yugi didn't spend his time almost exclusively inside – that even the soft pink of his lips seems a vibrant maroon. 

"Fuck!" Yugi exclaims. "Guzma was  _ not _ this hard last time I played this game." 

"Guzma?" Ryou asks. He can see the screen from where Yugi threw it – a white haired character stands opposite the protagonist. 

"The minor bad guy," Yugi explains. He leans back on the bed, resting his wait on his stretched out arms. He's wearing just his tank top styled binder – tossed his jacket to the side the moment he got in, complaining about the heat. Ryou tries not to watch him move. "Turns out he's just being manipulated by the REAL bad guys, though." 

"Ah." 

"He uses all bug type, too, like – he's really not supposed to be hard to beat." He drops all the way back and stares up at the ceiling. Ryou copies him. "I'm using my usual team but maybe I should switch a couple out. Shit, that means more grinding... what a pain." 

Ryou listens to Yugi complain and strategize even though he doesn't understand any of it in the least. He watches Yugi's mouth as he talks, moves his gaze up to Yugi's eyes, over his hair, down to his hands which move endlessly as the explanation continues. It doesn't really occur to him that maybe he shouldn't be looking this intently – that, perhaps, people who are only friends – best friends? – don't stare at each other like this. 

But Yugi doesn't bring it up, and he doesn't move until he's gotten back the motivation to try again, and even then he just sits up to grab his DS before laying back down, and so Ryou doesn't think about it. Doesn't want to. He just watches Yugi's smile in the reflection on the screen and allows himself for now to enjoy this.

 

 

(He buys Yugi a soft toy in the shape of one of those little animals he fights with in the game. It takes him a couple hours to figure out the name with hapless google searches and even longer to find a site that sold them that didn't appear to give his laptop rabies, but in the end the little Rowlet makes it to his house and from there into Yugi's hands.)

(He did  _ not _ do it just to see Yugi's bright smile. or for Yugi to hug him tight, or to see Yugi walking around with it in his hands for the next two weeks.)

(Definitely not.)

 

 

Bakura Ryou is gay. He knows this. He also, unfortunate though it may be, is not stupid. 

He has a crush on Yugi. 

Does Yugi ever see him in that way? Does Yugi ever get the same bubbling warmth in his stomach? The same soft rose scented cloud around his head? Does Yugi lay awake at night with the same thoughts of holding his hand?

Ryou is doubtful. Yugi is amazing – he could have anyone he wanted. Ryou is just – Ryou. 

And besides. They're friends. Ryou appreciates that fact more than almost anything else in his life. Yugi has opened the door to so many new experiences, led him out into the world and shown him so many new things, new people, new memories. An invaluable friendship. 

(But, Ryou really can't deny how much better those memories would be with Yugi's hand warm in his.)

Ryou is not an impulsive person. He is cautious, careful. He thinks things through. He's not the kind of person so assume some bravado and go declare his love to Yugi. He has a more subtle plan. A softer plan. He allows himself to sit on it, comforted simply by its existence.

 

 

Love, however, brings out things in people that are never expected. 

 

 

Yugi is laying in Ryou's bed again, and Ryou is laying by his side, and they're both awake, neither sleeping, both talking softly back and forth, under a shared blanket,  _ Ryou's _ blanket, and that's when the urge overtakes him. 

It's not a sudden thing so much as it is a gradual one. As they talk and the time ticks away the feeling grows larger, and the thought becomes a little more present in his mind. He thinks about ways he could word it. Situations where it would make sense to say it. In the lulls of their sleepy conversation he scripts out a fake one where Yugi almost asks him to say it, flirts with him in his own quiet way until Ryou can't take it anymore. Then Yugi – the real Yugi – will open his mouth and continue on with whatever topic he's decided is good, and Ryou will set the fantasy aside for later. 

But these sort of things – they're like a lie. They can't help but want to force their way out any way they can, pulling and shoving their way into your words before you can filter them out. That's how it happens for Ryou, at least. Inevitable. Unavoidable. Honest. 

"You're an amazing person," Is how it starts. Yugi was complaining about grades – oh, something as trivial as grades has long since escaped Ryou's notice. "Your grades don't reflect your kindness and creativity. They don't show how people feel about you." 

Yugi smiles at him. "You're so sweet, Ryou." He says, as if it's easy. But maybe – maybe their soft conversation has opened them both up, and maybe it  _ is _ easy, because Ryou's mouth has become a slip and slide for all his thoughts to come racing down. 

"I really can't quite put into words how amazing you are, Yugi. You're funny, and smart, and positive, and you make everything so much fun. I really am lucky to have you in my life." 

"Ryouuuuu, don't say all that nice stuff! I'm gonna cry." 

"And – I really like you, Yugi. A lot." And after a beat, "As more than friends." 

"Oh." 

For a second – one long, years and years and years long second – he thinks that Yugi might be – upset. There's something off about his face, but then again Ryou's never been good at discerning expressions; maybe he's just thinking, or processing, or waiting for Ryou to add something else on,  _ anything _ else on, to change the subject to a more familiar topic. 

But then the second is over, and Yugi is  _ blushing _ , and there's this swooping feeling in Ryou's stomach he's never felt before. 

"I like you, too." Yugi says. Shy. Soft. 

"You do?"

"Yeah." Yugi laughs a little. Nervous. Ryou remembers that from a book he read once. People laugh when they're nervous.

"Would you go on a date with me?" Ryou asks. Yugi laughs again, but this time it's less breathless and more giddy.

"Of course!" He says. "I mean, I said I like you." 

"We can – go to that cafe you like. The one uptown." Ryou remembers him going on and on about it. "I'll get you the shortcake." He's thought about this more times than he could ever count.

"That sounds wonderful." Yugi says. His face is covered in a wide grin and he looks beautiful. 

"Is it too soon to ask if I can kiss you?" Ryou wants to desperately, more than he's ever wanted anything, maybe, perhaps the second most he's ever wanted anything. Yugi's blushing even harder but he doesn't open his mouth to respond. 

Instead, he leans in and kisses him. 

It's quick and soft but the feeling it sends through Ryou is like none other – a big gulp of hot tea that you can feel travel to your stomach; the staticy feeling of pressing your fingertips to the screen of an old TV; a breathless, gasping wave of nerves that flips and turns in your stomach; a wide expanse of garden filled with slowly grazing butterflies. 

"Wow." Ryou says. He's sure he's blushing now, too. 

"Yeah." 

It's so quiet in the house with everyone asleep. The soft chirp of crickets outside and the buzz of the heater are no more than white noise to Ryou's ears, trained as they are on Yugi's breathing. He's breathing through his nose but his lips are agape, ever so slightly, and he watches as Yugi licks them out of nerves. 

"Can I kiss you again?" 

"Yeah."


End file.
